Sea trout recipe

Northcote Manor's Lisa Allen concocts a remarkably inventive way to serve sea trout and cockles in this brilliant seafood course. The fish here is filleted in a different manner from usual, as it is sliced from the back spine side rather than the belly. With butter-cooked cockles and a potato salad flecked with virbrant samphire, this sea trout recipe is a bold adventure of seaside tastes that will please any palette

Start by preparing the sea trout. In this recipe, carefully debone the fish going in from the back side of the fish, removing the bones and guts without slicing through the belly. Pin bone the halves and check thoroughly by gently running your finger over the pin boned area to be sure there are no bones left. Set aside in fridge until required

2.

For the cockles, place a large heavy based saucepan on a high heat. As soon as the pan is hot, add the cockles, shallots, thyme, parsley stalks and white wine. Cover with a tight lid

3.

Cook for maximum 1 ½ minutes until the cockles open up. Removed from the pan by straining into a colinder over a bowl. Leave to cool for 2-3 minutes. Pick the cockles out of the shells and discard
any that have not opened

4.

Take a small pan and place on a medium heat with the butter. Melt the butter until you have a beurre noisette. Remove from the stove and pass though a fine strainer into a bowl

Making a beurre noisette

Add the butter into a steel or copper pan on a medium heat. As the butter melts and begins to foam, use a spatula to make sure the milk solids do not stick to the base of the pan. As soon as the butter begins to brown slightly add the required ingredients or remove from the pan and into a bowl over ice water

5.

Add the lemon juice and salt to the butter, clingfilm and place into the fridge until the butter is nearly set but is still soft. When the mix has cooled add the cockles and butter together and reserve

6.

Place the diced new potatoes, into a medium size pan, add the chicken stock, water, parsley stalks & thyme. Season with salt, bring to the boil and reduce the heat to a simmer for 10 minutes until the potatoes are just cooked

7.

When cooked, drain the potatoes into a colinder, discard the liquid, leave to cool until warm. Place them into a medium sized mixing bowl

8.

Add the onion, wholegrain mustard, mayonnaise and the chopped chives to the
potatoes and mix carefully. Season with salt and pepper and set aside for use later

9.

For the fennel salad remove the tops off the fennel and slice length ways on a mandolin as
thinly as possible to get whole strips. Slice the radish into discs of the same thickeness

10.

Place the sliced fennel & radish into a medium bowl and sprinkle with salt. Add the olive oil and lemon juice and combine well

11.

In a pot of lightly salted boiling water, add the samphire and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from the hot water and place immediately into ice water. Strain well, and add the samphire to the fennel and radish mix

12.

For the salt bake mix, combine the salt and egg whites together in a large bowl to form a thick paste and set aside for the fish

13.

Remove the trout from the fridge. Position the buttered cockles between the trout halves and close. Preheat the oven to 190°C. On a flat tray lined with greaseproof paper, make a base with salt mix for the sea trout to sit on--approximately 24cm long, 7cm wide and 1cm thick

14.

Sit the sea trout on to the salt and carefully cover the fish evenly with the remaining salt, keeping the shape of the fish. Once covered, place into the oven for 9 minutes. When the fish is cooked, remove from the oven and leave to rest for 5 minutes

15.

To serve, divide the potato salad between the plates and place the salted fennel salad beside the potato salad and drizzle with remaining dressing. Scatter the samphire over the fennel. Put the salt baked trout on to a wood fish board, with toffee hammer, fork and spoon and serve

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